Economic Beat

Jobs Recovery Still a Year Away

No job market since the Great Depression has taken even half this long to come back.

If we extrapolate based on recent progress, one key indicator of recovery is now just 12 months away. According to the employment report for May released Friday, nonfarm payroll employment in the private sector rose by an average of 163,000 over the past three months, putting the total number of jobs on private sector payrolls as of May at 113.789 million.

That's still nearly two million lower than the January 2008 peak of 115.668 million, but at an average monthly increase of 163,000, we'll finally exceed the January '08...